Please open your Bibles with me to Genesis 18.
We’re going verse by verse through the book of Genesis. It’s a great trek for us to be wandering through Genesis and learning practical principles along the way. We come to this one section in Genesis 16-18 that’s about this fractured family. Abraham and Sarah and then Hagar. That’s a challenge for all of them and we see how God deals with each person individually.
As we talked about Hagar, we saw that God cared for her in a personal way. That she had an attitude in her home and God said, “I want you to go back into that place. Even though you’re being emotionally abused in this situation, I want you to go back in and I want you to change your attitude.” Now later I just want to again say that she is going to leave that home and she’s not going to go back. But in this case even though there was emotional abuse, God had more work to do in her heart. “Go back in. You need to be a minister there. You need to do what you need to do in that place.” So she goes back in. That’s a whole work with Hagar. God supports her, encourages her. And Hagar says, “He is the God who sees me. He is the God who hears me.” So she gets all the support she needs to stay in her difficult life. We all need that. It may be work, it may be family, it may be sickness. You need the strength to deal with the current things that are going on. God offers that. You’re in. That’s in Genesis 16.
Now in Genesis 17 we have Abraham, the Father of many nations, but having a hard time in his own home managing things. So God is going to help him think bigger. I want you to think bigger about ministering even in your own home and what I’m going to do in your life. That was our whole message from last week and Abraham is becoming more of a spiritual leader in his own home by the end of chapter 17.
Now in chapter 18 we’re going to look at Sarah and we’re going to talk to her. That’s where we are today. But I’ve got to step back and say one of the beautiful things about this passage is that you recognize that even in the midst of a fractured family God is actively working. I don’t want you to ever think that because your family has struggles that somehow you’ve been put on the shelf. No. God wants to work directly in your life. He wants to heal you. He wants to bring about strength in your life because even in the midst of a fractured family God is at work building the people He wants to build. He builds an Esther who grows up in a nontraditional family. He works in the life of Daniel who’s taken away from his family and grows up in Babylon. God is working the lives of people in nontraditional families. You’ve just got to understand that. Because He’s a Father to the fatherless and He has a real heart for the widows. So the challenges that you experience in family life, you’ve got to know that God is right here and He wants to do a work in your heart.
The family I would say is this crucible. It's where we work out our sanctification. It is not an easy place. I used to think I was pretty righteous. Then I got married. But that was nothing like having children and finding out how much selfishness I really have in my life. I wish I could help young couples understand this idea way before they get married. If they had more tools when they start out, they would do much better.
I think every couple should have to sit down and listen to each other eat a bowl of cereal. If they can get through that they might make it through the rest of their married life. I think every couple, people who like each other they ought to have a talk about the thermostat. I mean that’s a real important discussion that we all have as couples about the thermostat and where it is. I think every couple should have to put together a piece of IKEA furniture. I mean that is so complicated with all those screws. If you can get through that, good things can happen. I think every couple should have to define what it is to have an empty tube of toothpaste. When is the tube empty? Very important to define that. I think every couple who thinks they want to get married should have to canoe across a lake. A canoe requires that you work together. If you can make it across that, maybe you can make it when you get married. See I think every couple should define which way the toilet paper should go on the roller. Which way is right?
There are all these opinions we’ve got to have and we’ve got to talk about them. I know I’m kind of joking around. Those are small things, but the small things turn into the big things and the family becomes this place where we grow and then these things start to accumulate in our lives and we need to know how to handle them.
Hagar and Abraham and Sarah need to know how to handle the dynamics in the relationship, just like we do when we go to work. Just like we do in the various situations in our lives. God wants to do important things in the lives of people, and marriage and family are a great place where He brings these things about.
Maybe you’re a young person saying, “Whoa, hearing all this talk about getting married and having children, I don’t think I’m into that at all.” Well let me tell you that one of the greatest experiences you can have this side of heaven is to be married and have children. God can do so many good things in your life. It's powerful. But you have to be ready for that. You have to be prepared.
If you’re a young person listening to me today and you’re not even interested in somebody else yet, here’s what I would say. If you’re a guy and you find yourself starting to be attracted to a girl, that’s fine. You don’t need to talk to me about that. But if she looks back at you and she gives you a smile, you’ve got to be in my office so I can help you know how to develop this relationship in a way that’s going to be successful.
There’s a right way to do this thing called marriage, a right way to do this thing we call family. So let’s work together to do that. At this church we are committed to marriages, we are committed to strong families, to parenting, and I would love to help you personally in your own relationship should you need it.
Well now we’re going to look at Genesis 18. It's divided into three parts. The outline that’s presented right in the passage is number one we’re going to talk about hospitality, number two we’re going to talk about Sarah, number three we’re going to talk about God. So let’s go into the passage in Genesis 18 and let’s see what God is doing now in this passage.
It says – And the LORD appeared to him (Abraham) by the oak of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. So we’re getting a little description of the situation. So put yourself there. Put yourself in lower Israel where it’s warm, it’s hot. It’s the heat of the day it says. So it’s in the afternoon time. You are sitting outside your tent. That’s what Abraham is doing. He’s sitting outside of his tent, just enjoying the day. Doesn’t have anything on his to-do list obviously. He’s just sitting there. That’s where we pick up the story. God’s going to develop something very important here.
It says next – He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. Now these three men I want to talk about them. It says they were standing in front of him. Really they were standing some distance away because he runs to them. So there's got to be some space there we’ll see in the story. But he looks up and there's three guys. Let’s talk about who the three people are because the passage gives us clues if we look at it. So let’s get it right out of the context.
If you look at your Bible, if you’ve opened your Bible to Genesis 18 you’ll see in verse 1 that the word LORD is capitalized. Do you see that? Capital L-O-R-D. That is a reference to Yahweh, God’s personal name. The same word you’ll see in your text is used in verse 10 and 13. LORD. Capital L-O-R-D. And it says in verse 1 – The LORD appeared to him. So we know one of these three people is God Himself. Maybe it’s the preincarnate Christ. I don’t know. God revealed Himself a number of different ways and times in the Old Testament. Sometimes through a bush He revealed Himself. In this case we have a man coming there. He’s one of the men.
Now the other two, if you just flip over to Genesis 19 you’ll see that the first verse says this: And the two angels went on. Oh so that tells us who the other two people are. They are angels. So now we have God Himself and two angels looking like men coming and appearing before Abraham. That’s what’s happening. That’s the setting of our story.
Notice what Abraham does. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.”
Now if you’re watching closely you’ll see that in verse 3 the word Lord is not all capitalized. It’s small letters. Capital L, but then small lets o-r-d. Why is that? Because this isn’t the name in the Hebrew for God’s personal name. What we have here is we have a name that means mister or lord or some kind of title. You know, just a general title. “How are you doing, sir?” kind of thing. So that’s what’s described here. Because probably Abraham doesn’t yet know that this is God who is speaking.
What Abraham is going to do now is demonstrate eastern hospitality. I want to take you into some eastern hospitality so you understand what it looks like because it is definitely different than western hospitality. Yet I think God calls us to more of what’s happening in this passage. Maybe not exactly the same details, but we’re going to see how hospitality is really opening up your heart. That’s what it is. We’re going to talk about that in a moment.
But let’s look at what he does. He bows himself to the earth and says, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.” He doesn’t even know who they are yet. He says, “Hey, let me wash your feet (a common way that they would greet someone and care for someone in that time), while I bring a morsel of bread (I’m going to get a little bit of bread and I’m going to come back to you), that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.”
So what it does is it looks like what’s going to happen is he’s going to get a little bit of bread, but you’re going to find that he’s going to get a cow and kill it, he’s going to get his wife cooking in the kitchen. This is a big deal. This is hospitality in the east. It’s fascinating to watch what happens.
It reminds me of my time in Kenya when before we went as missionaries to Kenya for our nine-month time in Kenya we went to training up in Pearl River, New York. My wife and I and our five children went up to training and they had classes for all of us to know how to culturally deal with the customs of a particular culture. They knew we were going to Kenya, so they gave us specific customs that took place in Kenya. Now I don’t know if it was in that training or if it was when we actually got there and we were with some of the other missionaries, we were warned very clearly: “Let me tell you, this is one of those ways you can make a big mistake that you don’t want to make. Make sure you do this.” So we listened to what they had to say.
They said if someone comes to your door and knocks on your door and you open the door and it’s someone you know, that is someone who is your neighbor or someone from the school (I was a teacher there) or someone that you know, then you do not do what you do in America. Because in America what we do is we open the door and say, “Oh hi. Hey, what can I do for you?” That’s what we do. Because it’s all about the task. Right? “Oh, what can I do for you?” and we talk there at the door. You do not do that in Kenya. That would be a total insult. What you do is say, “Oh come on in. Here, have a seat over here. Why don’t I get you some chai.” So you go and make some chai and you try to get some morsel of bread, find something, some bread and butter (that’s typically in Kenya if they would have bread and butter they would bring that out for you) or we would find some kind of cookies or something we’d made, we’d bring them out. Then you’d sit there with the person and you drink the chai and we talk about whatever. But you don’t ask them why they’re there. When they are ready then they will say, “Oh and I’d like to talk to you about this or I’d like to share this with you.” And then you end up talking to them about whatever they came to talk about. It's totally different.
In America we are more concerned about time and tasks than we are about relationships. That’s what happens. That’s just who we are as Americans. It’s a godly person who is able to think more about relationships than time or tasks. This was such a major influence on my heart. It just changed who I am. To live in Kenya under this kind of a guidance was so important for me.
I made so many mistakes in this area. I remember one time I was a professor and I was going to class and I needed my assistant to do some work. She’s a Kenyan gal in the office. She was not just my assistant, she was the assistant for several of us teachers. I walked in and I said, “Hey Mary, would you please photocopy these documents for my class today so I can take them in there.”
She says, “Dr. Turansky, you didn’t greet me yet.”
“Oh yeah. I’m really sorry, Mary. How are you doing?”
“Well,” she says, and she starts telling me how she’s doing. So I’m there for three or four minutes and my class is getting ready to start. It’s not about the task. This person is a valuable person. It’s about the relationship.
I remember one time I was staying in the home of a pastor and had been invited to speak there. So the church service started on Sunday morning at 10:30. It takes a half hour to walk from his house to the church where I’m going to be speaking. So I’m ready at 9:30, ready to go, and we’re talking and they’re serving food. Finally we leave at 10:15. Now at 10:15 we’re leaving the house and the service starts at 10:30. It’s a thirty-minute walk. I’m going we’re already a little bit behind. So I’m walking…I’m not having trouble keeping up, I’m trying to keep things moving. Let’s go, let’s try to get there.
And then we come across someone. This man comes into the picture and “Oh hi, Bill. How are you doing?” And they talk for a minute and I’m going well this is going to be… And then they say, “Bill, I want you to meet Dr. Turansky. He’s going to be speaking at church today.”
And I’m saying, “Happy to meet you.”
And Bill says, “Oh where are you from?”
I said, “I’m from the United States.”
He says, “Oh I know someone from the United States. Maybe you know them.” This is a typical conversation in Africa. “I know this friend; I think he lives in the city of Florida. Do you know him?” So we’re talking back and forth for a little bit. And finally we get moving.
We get finally to the church at 11:00 and I’m feeling like oh man. But we get there and everybody’s jumping up and down. When they worship, they’re jumping up and down. It really is an amazing experience in worship. And everything flows. They’re not disappointed that we’re late. It's all about relationship. Relationship is far more important than tasks, far more important than time.
It was when I was in Africa I abandoned my watch. I had to take it off. It was an irritation for me and I know it was an insult to other people. I didn’t even wear a watch for a long time until the Apple Watch came out. That’s a different story.
Anyway, I just think this idea of hospitality is so strategic for us. In fact God wants us to demonstrate hospitality. It's a very important part of what we do in our lives. Let me show you a passage of scripture that’s referencing this in the New Testament.
Let’s jump into the New Testament to Hebrews 13:2. Just get this little glimpse of a reference back to this story. Because the writer of the Hebrews is telling all the Christians, “Hey, here’s something I want you to remember.” He says – Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it. Thinking about this story probably that Abraham is entertaining these angels and entertaining God Himself in the midst of this story.
But let’s go back to our passage. I hope you’re opening your heart because hospitality is really the opening of your heart. If you’re saying to yourself, “Oh I can’t have people come over in my home. We’re in the middle of a construction project,” “I can’t have people come into my home; it's just an apartment,” “I can’t have people come into my house because…” Abraham just had a tent and he’s entertaining God. We don’t have to have this huge thing going on in our lives in order to be hospitable.
What happens next is a recipe for domestic disaster it seems like to me. If I put myself in this situation, I better watch out. You better have a wife like mine to be able to do what he does. So the guests say – “Do what you have said.” So Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. This isn’t like fast food. We’re going into the bakery. This isn’t the drive thru. And he’s telling his wife, “Let’s get going here. Let’s do this.” And she does. And they provide this food.
But you’ve got to imagine this process is taking at least a couple of hours. I mean if you’re going to take a calf... I mean sometimes I’m waiting for my steak at the restaurant and I’ll say, “What do they got to do? Kill the cow?” That’s what they got to do here. It's going to take them a long time to repair this and get it out.
My wife is so gracious. We like to be hospitable in our home and there are some times when I have invited someone over and I forgot to tell my wife. It's still a bit of time before they come. But someone will come up to my wife and say this, “Hey, we’re sure glad we’re coming over to your house. Is there anything I can bring?”
My wife in her mind she’s going, “Uh oh. He did it again. He forgot.” But she doesn’t do that. Here’s what she says to the people. It’s so amazing I wish I could do this. She says, “Oh we’re so glad to have you come over. What would you like to bring?” Because she doesn’t know whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner. “What would you like to bring?”
“Well maybe I could bring a dessert.”
She says, “That would be great! Come on over.” She comes back to me and says, “Hey, so and so, when are they coming over?” That’s grace for me that I greatly appreciate.
Hospitality is so valuable. Keep in mind hospitality is the opening of your heart. You might not have people in your home right now. But you can always open up your heart. You can stand there and listen to someone talk for an extra minute. You can put the task aside and carry on a conversation for a moment. It's about hospitality. That’s what’s happening here. It's a beautiful part of the story.
Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. Hospitality number one in the passage.
Now let’s go to the second part of the passage which talks about Sarah. Now before I can tell you about Sarah, you have to know some background. Because if you only got what I’ve told you so far, you’re kind of thinking pretty negatively about Sarah already. Because last week I told you that she’s got a problem blaming problems on other people, manipulating situations. And we’ll see that she does. We’ll talk about that again today. But you’ve got to know this is a godly woman. This is a woman who loves God. This is a woman who is emulated in the Bible as someone you should look up to.
Let’s show you one of the passages. Hebrews 11. This is the faith hall of fame. She made it in there. She makes it into the faith hall of fame. And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. We’re going back to the passage right now to see the promise. Which she must have believed in because it’s happening before she’s even conceived. So this is a woman of faith.
1 Peter 3 holds Sarah up as a model for all woman to consider. This is a godly woman of faith who had a problem in the moment here with unbelief, making it practical in her own lives. This could happen to anyone. Men, women. It could happen to any of us that even though we’re being godly, we’re trying to serve the Lord, there can creep in these doubts, these desires to control the situation, this unbelief that can take place. We must be on guard against that. Sarah’s going to learn a lesson here as God works with her. Let’s go into the passage and see exactly what God has to say to her.
So they start the conversation with Abraham. They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” Because this is going to be all about the Sarah experience. And he said, “She is in the tent.” And you have to imagine they didn’t have a lot of insulation in those days, no sound barriers. She can hear exactly what’s going on in the tent, which we’re going to see in a few minutes.
So the LORD as a man, God Himself, in this personal relationship with Abraham. I just think about Revelation 3:20 which talks about how God wants to have a personal relationship with us. He says – Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will eat with him and he with me. That’s a message to us. That’s a message. If you’ve never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He wants to be your personal Savior. He wants to interact with you personally. That’s what God wants to do. And that’s what Abraham is experiencing in the moment. That’s the kind of relationship you and I have opportunity to have with God Himself.
The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years (in case you’ve forgotten that). One is a hundred and the other is ninety. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. That’s a discreet way of describing that she’s past menopause, right? The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself (not out loud, this was just kind of this personal laugh that she had inside), saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord (that is her husband) is old, shall I have pleasure?” That is the pleasure of having a child.
In verse 13 – The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’” Now it’s interesting that God is asking Abraham that question. Because Abraham laughed in the previous chapter and God gave him this great promise. I wonder if Abraham had not shared the word of the Lord that he received with Sarah. Maybe he hadn’t passed that word on. Maybe this is the first time Sarah’s heard it and that’s why she’s laughing. I can’t believe this. If she had heard it from Abraham from the last chapter, maybe she wouldn’t be laughing about it. But now it seems she’s heard it for the first time. Maybe that is why God is asking the question of Abraham. “Abraham, why is she laughing?” In other words, did you not tell her about the things that I told you? Are you not sharing spiritually with your wife? “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? (We’ll come back to that verse in a moment.) At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Now here is Sarah’s first experience in this conversation. She obviously comes out of the tent because she’s now with God Himself. She’s in prayer. Prayer is talking to God, right? So now she’s talking to God herself and the very first thing to come out of her mouth is a lie. She’s going to lie to God. It’s so… It's not just Sarah. There are times when we lie to God. Because we want God to think well of us. Now why did she lie? It says right in the passage there. It says – But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid.
There's lots of reasons that people lie. They lie because they are afraid of what’s going to happen. Maybe they’ll get caught. In this case she’s done the wrong thing. She’s afraid people are going to find out who she really is and what she’s really done, so she’s afraid. Sometimes people lie because they want other people to like them. Sometimes people lie because they want something they couldn’t get otherwise. So they lie so they can get what they want. Lying is a form of manipulation. Lying is saying I better take matters into my own hands here. I’m going to take over and I’m going to do something. I’m going to use my power in a way that’s not pleasing to the Lord, often resulting in tension and conflict. That’s the temptation in any of our lives. If we’re not trusting the Lord, then our temptation is to take matters into our own hands and be controlling.
If you look at the previous chapters as a story was unfolding you saw that Sarah says, “Alright. This child thing isn’t working, so why don’t you take Hagar,” and Abraham says, “Okay, I’m going to do it.” It was Sarah’s idea. She’s manipulating the situation. She’s taking control. There’s some people that are really control people. They are control people. They really like to be in control. Those people are tempted to lie. They’re tempted to be hands-on. And so they’re in trouble. Because they’re not trusting the Lord. They’re trying to manipulate the situation.
Then Hagar has this issue. She’s got this attitude with Sarah. She’s conceived. And now she goes to Abraham and says, “It is your fault that this is happening.” See she’s got a problem, Sarah does. Lying is just a form of this manipulation. She’s using her power in ways that dishonor God that result in tension and conflict.
Women can do that. Oh men can do it too, but men and women have different kinds of power I would say. A woman has a lot of power especially over her man in relationships. But the kind of power she has is different than the kind of power that a man has. I was thinking about some time the kinds of power that women have that dishonor God when they use it and create tension and conflict. I’ve got a few thoughts about that as I see it as I work with people. One is that women can complain and nag. When women complain and nag then they’re using their power in a way that dishonors God and creates tensions and conflict. Another thing that women can do is they can compare. “You know we’re the only family that I know that hasn’t gone to Disney World this year.” You know those kinds of comments, just comparing with others, is this way of putting pressure on. It's using power that they have. There’s this ability to put guilt on someone. “You know can’t you make more money than you’re making?” This guilt trip kind of thing that women can use to their power.
Now it’s not just women. I know that this story is about Sarah and so we’re talking about women. But men also misuse their power. But whenever you misuse your power, you dishonor God and you create tension and conflict. that’s what Sarah is doing here. It's a dangerous thing for her.
God’s going to do a work in her heart. How do I know that? Because Hebrew 11 says that she believed in the promise. She’s going to hear this promise, she’s going to change. She’s going to believe in the promise, she’s going to conceive, and she’s going to give birth. All of that is going to take place in the next year. She trusted the Lord. God did a work in her heart that was special and good and she’s emulated for being a model of womanhood in 1 Peter 3. It's a great passage.
Well hospitality was number one. Number two was Sarah. Number three we’ve got to look at God.
I just want to take you to that one statement in verse 14. Do you see it there? You might even underline this. You might want to put it on your wall. Is anything too hard for the LORD? Is anything too hard for the LORD? Of course this is a miracle, this is an impossible situation that’s taking place here. When this impossible situation takes place God is going to do something really special.
I don’t want you going away from this passage though saying, “Well I wish I had a child and I don’t have a child, so if I pray God has promised to give me one.” That’s not the application we can take out of this passage. God does miraculously provide children for barren couples. That is true. That He makes an infertile person fertile and that children are a result. It’s a beautiful thing when God does that. But He doesn’t promise to do that for everyone. But this is what God does promise. He does promise to fulfill His purposes in your life.
Let me show you where I want to take you to one passage in closing. Philippians 1:6 says – Being confident… This is something you can take to the bank. You can be confident in this; you can walk on this. This week you can experience confidence in this. That he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ. It's going to happen. God’s going to continue His work, He’s going to carry it on to completion.
You might go, “Oh I’m not married. I wish I were married. But God hasn’t provided the right person.” I can guarantee you that God will complete His purposes in you. That’s what He’s going to do. He’s going to complete His purposes in you. Is that going to result in you getting married? I don’t know that. You might be saying, “I’m married and wish I wasn’t married. Life is really hard right now.” I don’t know what God is going to do in that, but I do know this: That God’s purposes will be completed in you. You might be saying, “I’m in a dead-end job,” “I hate my job,” or “I don’t even have a job. I wish I had a job or a different job.” I don’t know whether God will provide you with a different job or a job, but I do know this: That you can be confident that what God has begun in your life He is going to complete in your life.
Which moves us from this idea of being in control of our lives, like Sarah was, to this place where it says, “God, what do you want from me? I want to be part of your purposes. I want you to complete your purpose in my life. I want to submit my agenda to you, Lord. I want to give you my heart. I want you to run my life. As you point out what I need to do, I’m going to follow you because that’s where the reward comes from. Lord, you know what my wishes are. You know how I wish different things and if they could be satisfied according to your will, I’d be grateful. But like Jesus prays in the garden, ‘Lord, take this cup from me if it is your will.’ But most importantly, Lord, your will be done.” Because as we tie ourselves into the will of God then we experience the blessing of God and we see what God is doing in our lives as He’s moving us forward. Well we may not get to see the end result, but right now we're able to trust the Lord for what He’s doing right now in our lives.
That’s the lesson that Sarah learned. That’s the lesson of faith. That’s what we all learn when we trust the Lord. We accept Him into our lives as our personal Savior. We talk to Him as a man talks to a man or a woman talks to a woman, that we’re able to have that personal relationship with God. I invite you in. I want you to be part of God’s family and it means that you start by saying, “I want to trust Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I know I have a sin problem. I need a Savior. But I want more than just a Savior. I want that friend, I want that Lord, I want God to be running my life.” God has a plan for you. You want to find out what that is and allow Him to complete it in your life. Amen? Amen.
Why don’t you stand with me and let’s pray together before we sing one more song together.
Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your word and the power that it has to change us. So I ask now that you would change our hearts. That you would point out small areas, big areas, whatever you want to do that will align us with your desire for us. Lord, teach us what it means to follow you. Continue to grow us as a church, grow us as individuals. We want to serve you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
